gardening-skills-wiki

name	Gardening Skills Wiki
description	Maintain skills wiki health - check links, naming, cross-references, and coverage
when_to_use	when adding, removing, or reorganizing skills, or periodically to maintain wiki health and validate links
version	1.1.0
languages	bash

Gardening Skills Wiki

Overview

The skills wiki needs regular maintenance to stay healthy: links break, skills get orphaned, naming drifts, INDEX files fall out of sync.

Core principle: Automate health checks to maintain wiki quality without burning tokens on manual inspection.

When to Use

Run gardening after:

• Adding new skills
• Removing or renaming skills
• Reorganizing categories
• Updating cross-references
• Suspicious that links are broken

Periodic maintenance:

• Weekly during active development
• Monthly during stable periods

Quick Health Check

# Run all checks
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# Or run specific checks
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-links.sh
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-naming.sh
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-index-coverage.sh

# Analyze search gaps (what skills are missing)
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/analyze-search-gaps.sh

The master script runs all checks and provides a health report.

What Gets Checked

1. Link Validation (check-links.sh)

Checks:

• Backtick-wrapped @ links - backticks disable resolution
• Relative paths like skills/ or skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/ - should use skills/ absolute paths
• All skills/ references resolve to existing files
• Skills referenced in INDEX files exist
• Orphaned skills (not in any INDEX)

Fixes:

• Remove backticks from @ references
• Convert skills/ and skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/ relative paths to skills/ absolute paths
• Update broken skills/ references to correct paths
• Add orphaned skills to their category INDEX
• Remove references to deleted skills

2. Naming Consistency (check-naming.sh)

Checks:

• Directory names are kebab-case
• No uppercase or underscores in directory names
• Frontmatter fields present (name, description, when_to_use, version, type)
• Skill names use active voice (not "How to...")
• Empty directories

Fixes:

• Rename directories to kebab-case
• Add missing frontmatter fields
• Remove empty directories
• Rephrase names to active voice

3. INDEX Coverage (check-index-coverage.sh)

Checks:

• All skills listed in their category INDEX
• All category INDEX files linked from main INDEX
• Skills have descriptions in INDEX entries

Fixes:

• Add missing skills to INDEX files
• Add category links to main INDEX
• Add descriptions for INDEX entries

Common Issues and Fixes

Broken Links

❌ BROKEN: skills/debugging/root-cause-tracing
   Target: /path/to/skills/debugging/root-cause-tracing/SKILL.md

Fix: Update the reference path - skill might have moved or been renamed.

Orphaned Skills

⚠️  ORPHANED: test-invariants/SKILL.md not in testing/INDEX.md

Fix: Add to the category INDEX:

- skills/gardening-skills-wiki/test-invariants - Description of skill

Backtick-Wrapped Links

❌ BACKTICKED: skills/testing/condition-based-waiting on line 31
   File: getting-started/SKILL.md
   Fix: Remove backticks - use bare @ reference

Fix: Remove backticks:

# ❌ Bad - backticks disable link resolution
`skills/testing/condition-based-waiting`

# ✅ Good - bare @ reference
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

Relative Path Links

❌ RELATIVE: skills/testing in coding/SKILL.md
   Fix: Use skills/ absolute path instead

Fix: Convert to absolute path:

# ❌ Bad - relative paths are brittle
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

# ✅ Good - absolute skills/ path
skills/testing/condition-based-waiting

Naming Issues

⚠️  Mixed case: TestingPatterns (should be kebab-case)

Fix: Rename directory:

cd ~/.claude/skills/testing
mv TestingPatterns testing-patterns
# Update all references to old name

Missing from INDEX

❌ NOT INDEXED: condition-based-waiting/SKILL.md

Fix: Add to testing/INDEX.md:

## Available Skills

- skills/gardening-skills-wiki/condition-based-waiting - Replace timeouts with condition polling

Empty Directories

⚠️  EMPTY: event-based-testing

Fix: Remove if no longer needed:

rm -rf ~/.claude/skills/event-based-testing

Naming Conventions

Directory Names

• Format: kebab-case (lowercase with hyphens)
• Process skills: Use gerunds when appropriate (creating-skills, testing-skills)
• Pattern skills: Use core concept (flatten-with-flags, test-invariants)
• Avoid: Mixed case, underscores, passive voice starters ("how-to-")

Frontmatter Requirements

Required fields:

• name: Human-readable name
• description: One-line summary
• when_to_use: Symptoms and situations (CSO-critical)
• version: Semantic version

Optional fields:

• languages: Applicable languages
• dependencies: Required tools
• context: Special context (e.g., "AI-assisted development")

Automation Workflow

After Adding New Skill

# 1. Create skill
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/category/new-skill
vim ~/.claude/skills/category/new-skill/SKILL.md

# 2. Add to category INDEX
vim ~/.claude/skills/category/INDEX.md

# 3. Run health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# 4. Fix any issues reported

After Reorganizing

# 1. Move/rename skills
mv ~/.claude/skills/old-category/skill ~/.claude/skills/new-category/

# 2. Update all references (grep for old paths)
grep -r "skills/gardening-skills-wiki/old-category/skill" ~/.claude/skills/

# 3. Run health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# 4. Fix broken links

Periodic Maintenance

# Monthly: Run full health check
~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh

# Review and fix:
# - ❌ errors (broken links, missing skills)
# - ⚠️  warnings (naming, empty dirs)

The Scripts

garden.sh (Master)

Runs all health checks and provides comprehensive report.

Usage:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh [skills_dir]

check-links.sh

Validates all @ references and cross-links.

Checks:

• Backtick-wrapped @ links (disables resolution)
• Relative paths (skills/ or skills/gardening-skills-wiki/~/) - should be skills/
• @ reference resolution to existing files
• Skills in INDEX files exist
• Orphaned skills detection

check-naming.sh

Validates naming conventions and frontmatter.

Checks:

• Directory name format
• Frontmatter completeness
• Empty directories

check-index-coverage.sh

Validates INDEX completeness.

Checks:

• Skills listed in category INDEX
• Categories linked in main INDEX
• Descriptions present

Quick Reference

Issue	Script	Fix
Backtick-wrapped links	check-links.sh	Remove backticks from @ refs
Relative paths	check-links.sh	Convert to skills/ absolute
Broken links	check-links.sh	Update @ references
Orphaned skills	check-links.sh	Add to INDEX
Naming issues	check-naming.sh	Rename directories
Empty dirs	check-naming.sh	Remove with rm -rf
Missing from INDEX	check-index-coverage.sh	Add to INDEX.md
No description	check-index-coverage.sh	Add to INDEX entry

Output Symbols

• ✅ Pass - Item is correct
• ❌ Error - Must fix (broken link, missing skill)
• ⚠️ Warning - Should fix (naming, empty dir)
• ℹ️ Info - Informational (no action needed)

Integration with Workflow

Before committing skill changes:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/garden.sh
# Fix all ❌ errors
# Consider fixing ⚠️  warnings
git add .
git commit -m "Add/update skills"

When links feel suspicious:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-links.sh

When INDEX seems incomplete:

~/.claude/skills/meta/gardening-skills-wiki/check-index-coverage.sh

Common Rationalizations

Excuse	Reality
"Will check links manually"	Automated check is faster and more thorough
"INDEX probably fine"	Orphaned skills happen - always verify
"Naming doesn't matter"	Consistency aids discovery and maintenance
"Empty dir harmless"	Clutter confuses future maintainers
"Can skip periodic checks"	Issues compound - regular maintenance prevents big cleanups

Real-World Impact

Without gardening:

• Broken links discovered during urgent tasks
• Orphaned skills never found
• Naming drifts over time
• INDEX files fall out of sync

With gardening:

• 30-second health check catches issues early
• Automated validation prevents manual inspection
• Consistent structure aids discovery
• Wiki stays maintainable

The Bottom Line

Don't manually inspect - automate the checks.

Run garden.sh after changes and periodically. Fix ❌ errors immediately, address ⚠️ warnings when convenient.

Maintained wiki = findable skills = reusable knowledge.